Student 23 and 24 1950 - 1960

Medical: ​​PACEMAKER 1958

A pacemakers primary purpose is to mantain adequate heart rate by using electrical impulses, delivered by electrodes contracting the heart mucles to regulate the beating of the heart. The pacemaker was invented by Ake Semning (1915-2000) and Rune Elmquist (1906-1996) from Sweden. Ake trained under Clarence Crafoord at Sabbatsberg Hospital, where he and Rune Elmqvist developed the first totally implantable pacemaker. Rune worked as a medical doctor for a while, but then worked as an engineer and inventor. Ake later became head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Zurich and performed the first heart transplant in Switzerland.
external image hpm_0000_0003_0_img0124.jpgexternal image r_elmquist.jpgexternal image 3001300.219.gr1.gif

Computer Advancments:

  • Microchip was invented in 1959
  • Computer mouse invetned in 1963 by Douglas Engelbart

Major Historical Events in America:

  • John F Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963
  • The Civil Rights movement (1955-1968): This movement’s aim was to outlaw racial discrimination against African Americans. Prominent figures of the Civil Rights Movement were W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr.
  • In 1954, Congress added the words, 'under God,' to the Pledge making the Pledge both a patriotic oath and a public prayer.

Major Historical Events around the World:

  • The Soviet Union launches the Sputnik satellite, the first man-made object to orbit the earth in 1957.
  • The Space race began by the Soviets in 1957, Alan Shepard was the first American in space in 1961, John Glenn was the first American to orbit the earth, and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, in Apollo XI, were the first men to walk on the moon in 1969.
  • Fidel Castro installs the first communist regime in the Western Hemisphere and so the U.S. breaks off diplomatic relations in 1961.

Pictures From :

Google Images
Informational websites:

http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/modern.htm

http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/modern_2.htm
http://www.wwwk.co.uk/culture/inventions/50s/index.htm